for 'The Curve of the Land': "An enchanting story by someone who has a wonderful command of the English language."-- Professor Ellen Langer, Harvard University

' .... The characters are very believable and their interpersonal relations are rich and interesting. All in all this was a wonderful read and a marvelous first novel by a great writer!'-- Jeannie Goodwin

Indepth review by poet and author Kevan Manwaring: 'This thin novel by American-based British writer Diana Durham is weighty with ideas – like narrow uprights supporting the monumental capstone of a cromlech. It charts a contemporary megalithic odyssey of Britain, with many prehistoric sites featured, and as such should appeal to anyone of the pagan persuasion. The framing narrative is a group tour of sacred sites led by the charismatic ‘leading authority’ on such places, Richard Lamb. He is a guru with feet of clay, as Jessica discovers – the viewpoint character whose journey we follow. An environmental campaigner suffering from burn-out, she finds her life imploding – chiefly the relationship with her eco-photographer boyfriend, Paul, who bears the brunt of her perpetual disgruntlement. On the verge of splitting up, she jumps aboard Richard’s ‘magical mystery tour’, in hope of some kind of spiritual experience involving earth-lights – the anti-venom to her partner Paul’s apparent ‘rationalism’. Their conflict provides the dialectic of the narrative: the ecological vs the spiritual; the mundane vs the magical world; ‘Martian’ men vs ‘Venusian’ women – all of which prove to be false dichotomies. Yet there are many bumpy roads to go before then. Durham convincingly captures the tour-group dynamic with a sharply-observed cast of (mainly) New Age seekers. A couple of sceptical journalists are thrown in for good measure.Durham is particularly good at capturing the pervasive credulity, snobbery and brinkmanship endemic in such circles. The women (and the demographic is mainly female aboard this Earth Mysteries tour) vie for the attention of the unlikely Alpha male, Lamb, who turns out to be seedier than his refined façade. As perhaps inevitably happens in such situations, the group’s Shadow emerges as the earth-light seekers find themselves experiencing lust, jealousy, anger and despair. Each site catalyses the escalating situation – providing a mirror for their projections and expectations, fears and concerns. Durham evokes the genius loci of each site vividly and Lamb’s commentary provides an expositional device for weaving in the archaeology, folklore, and John Michel-like mystical speculation. What keeps the narrative grounded is an ecological awareness, which provides the background ‘threat’ throughout the story – this is epitomised in the threat to a grove of ancient oaks in Cornwall by a supermarket development. The plot-lines converge on this crunch-point, in a rather condensed and melodramatic denouement. Jessica, who proves to be a querulous, contrary and – dare I say it – irrational protagonist, experiences an epiphany which motivates her to act. Yet this is too little, too late – for the majority of the novel she comes across as a rather solipsistic, unsympathetic character. Paul, who is ostensibly, the ‘enemy’, (a man, and therefore, by default, insensitive, gadget-obsessed and controlling it would appear) turns out to be more sympathetic.Fortunately, most of the female characters are flawed too and nobody really ‘wins’ in this war of the sexes. In a way, the humans’ behaviour could be seen as the fey flickering of earthlights caused by the stress the Earth is being placed under – acting out the pain of Mother Earth. This underlying ecological suffering, and the helplessness it inculcates, is the book’s most serious message, which redeems it from being a mere New Age holiday read. Yet it has much to satisfy the lovers of esoteric fiction – being redolent of the novels of Dion Fortune, and, indeed, my own novel, The Long Woman (Awen, 2004). It shows a deep familiarity and love of the ancient Isles of Britain, and makes for an engaging read – especially in situ. Recommended.'

for 'The Return of King Arthur: Completing the Quest for Wholeness':'Diana Durham does masterful work in bringing this jewel of the Western world into {modern} relevance; she makes it possible to begin one's own grail quest in terms understandable for our present mentality. Not the least of Ms Durham's skills is to bring the place of women out of obscurity and thus provide focal points essential to understanding this great Myth.' - Robert Johnson, Author of 'He', 'She', 'Inner Work', 'Owning Your Own Shadow"

'An outstanding and important reminder that the two entwined stories {the Grail quest and the King Arthur story} are more than relevant to solving modern problems.' - Angeles Arrien, Author of 'The Four-Fold Way'

'Those seeking to transmute legend to life have a new grail queen to consider' - The Psychoanalytic Review

'With all my heart I know that you as a woman have provided healing..' - Reader

'Great leaders know how to unlock creative possibilities that live in the teams they lead. 'The Return of King Arthur' brilliantly shows us how, by interpreting the wisdom in two of our oldest stories' -Lance Secretan, author of 'Inspire: What Great Leaders Do.'

'Trust that on these pages you will find new and provocative ideas that you can apply to your life and to your world.' - Bookmarks, NH Sunday Monitor

for 'Sea of Glass': 'To convey deep feeling in language that amplifies that feeling on every reading is to go beyond language towards a deeper communication than words can ever convey. The intonation and expression of the poet comes with each stanza, to the extent that the reader absorbs the words as his/her own, that is the gift of the poet. Diana has that gift.' - Kindred Spirit Magazine, UK

'A lot of energy in this work, waves of it becoming words, shaping these vulnerable and exuberant poems.' - Poetry Listings, London

for 'To the End of the Night':'Diana Durham's deep clear eye for feeling truth intuits a level of spiritual reality through the fabric of her poetry that just gets better and better as time goes on. I have known her since 1989 and her poems go on reading as fresh as newlyexperienced dreams.' - Jay Ramsay, Author of 'Kingdom of the Edge' and 'Alchemy', founder of the Chrysalis Poetry Project.

for'Between Two Worlds':'Diana Durham takes the sonnet form and turns into something fluid as well as fluent, for for a contemporary world that (as I said in my own 'Fourteen Lines for Britain') does not rhyme. She does this with her inimitable penetrative clarity that 'sees through' the world and the larger and invisible currents of energy that are part of this great change we are witnessing. She mirrors the collective psyche, reinventing the content as something more transpersonal than subjective, touching on what concerns us all.'- Jay Ramsay, author of ‘Kingdom of the Edge’, ‘Local Universe’ , described by ‘Caduceus’ magazine as “England’s foremost transformation poet”

'Beautiful - your work speaks to me.' - Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master & His Emissary:The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World

'I love the language richness, the flow of the lines ... makes me want to read them over and over.'- Alice B Fogel, author of Be That Empty, I Love This Dark World, recipient of the NEA Individual Artists Fellowship,Poet Laureate of New Hampshire.